UNITED STATES

U.S. stock index futures pointed slightly higher on Wednesday as investors awaited congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for clues to the U.S. central bank's thinking on the economy.

Afghanistan's main opposition on Wednesday criticized President Hamid Karzai's removal of foreign observers from a U.N.-backed electoral watchdog as autocratic and urged international pressure to ensure impartial elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court said a corporation's principal place of business is where its top executives work, typically at the corporate headquarters, rather than where its products or services are sold.

Two days after his appointment as president of Toyota Motor Corp last June, Akio Toyoda delivered his vision for steering the company founded by his grandfather.

U.S. stock index futures pointed higher on Wednesday as investors awaited congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for clues to the U.S. central bank's thinking on the economy.

President Barack Obama will appeal to U.S. business leaders on Wednesday to back his push to create jobs as he defends his agenda against conservative critics seeking to paint him as a big spender.

U.S. banks and investment firms transferred their political contributions to Republicans in 2009 as Democrats in Washington put the focus on big bonuses, huge profits and tight lending, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

European Union antitrust regulators are looking into complaints filed by three online companies against Google that may lead to a formal investigation into the search-engine giant's business practices.

Hyundai Motor will recall 47,000 of its new Sonata sedans to fix faulty door latches, seeking to avoid the damaging criticism Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp faces for its handling of a series of safety problems.

European stocks eked out small gains on Wednesday against a background of investor caution globally following a dip in U.S. consumer sentiment.

Blockbuster Inc has hired a law firm and an investment bank to explore how the video rental firm can cut its $1 billion debt load, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

New Yorkers who want to watch online videos or family photos on their TVs will soon be able to do so on their own personal TV channel if they are Cablevision Systems Corp subscribers.

Asia shares fell on Wednesday as surprise declines in U.S. consumer confidence and German business sentiment fueled fears about the strength of the global economic recovery and boosted the safe-haven yen.

Toyota Motor Corp's president braced for tough questions from a U.S. congressional panel on Wednesday after the Japanese automaker conceded it had let safety standards slip and could still not explain most incidents of unintended acceleration.

Toyota Motor Corp's president braced for tough questions from a congressional panel on Wednesday after the Japanese automaker conceded it had let safety standards slip and could still not explain most incidents of unintended acceleration.

Yahoo Inc plans to integrate Twitter into its collection of websites, as the company seeks to enhance the appeal of its online properties with popular social networking features.

Google Inc told communications regulators on Tuesday the fee assessed on customers who end their service contracts for its Nexus One mobile phone has been slashed to $150 from $350.

South Korea's Hyundai Motor has stopped U.S. sales of its 2011 Sonata sedan due to door lock issues, sending its shares down more than 4 percent on concerns it could become snared in a damaging recall crisis like Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

Shares in Hyundai Motor lost more than 4 percent on Wednesday on reports it had stopped selling its new Sonata model in the United States due to problems with its door locks.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said Oppenheimer & Co will restore $31 million to the accounts of customers who were stuck owning auction-rate securities that became illiquid.

Over 6500 authors have asked to be excluded from the digital books agreement that Google reached with the publishing industry bestselling authors Jeffrey Archer and Louis de Bernières and critical favorites Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith.